Page 73 of Between the Lines

“Sounds that way,” Joe said, smiling. He set his keys down and glanced at Cece. “I’ll take care of her. You rest.”

“I can—” Cece started, then stopped when she realized she truly did not have the energy. “Okay. Thanks.”

Joe went into the kitchen, and Cece closed her eyes. She could hear the snap of a can being opened, followed by the clink of the bowl being set down.

“There you go,” he said softly. “Lunch is served. No need to yell at everyone. Your mom needs her rest.”

Peanut responded with another opinionated meow, followed by the unmistakable sound of eating.

Joe chuckled. “That’s better, huh? Boy, you were hungry.”

Cece smiled faintly, her body sinking deeper into the couch cushions. The low murmur of Joe’s voice drifted toward her, gentle and amusingly tender as he continued talking to Peanut, reassuring her, and maybe himself, that Cece was going to be okay.

By the time he came back to the living room, she was halfway asleep, his presence anchoring her to the safety of home.

She let herself drift the rest of the way, held there by the fatigue of her body, but also by the simple, comforting knowledge that she wasn’t alone.

Chapter Thirty

Late afternoon always felt different at the hospital. At least to Maude. It seemed to her that the morning’s urgency was gone, replaced by a quieter kind of routine that settled over the entire building. Even the people moving through the halls had a less frantic pace.

Maude stacked the last of the magazines on the hospitality cart, then straightened the blanket she’d just pulled up over an elderly woman’s knees.

The woman smiled at her, eyes tired but warm with appreciation. “Thank you, dear,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” Maude replied. “I’ll check back on you as soon as I can.”

She wheeled the cart into its usual spot, then slipped into the volunteer breakroom. She cleaned her hands with sanitizer and was about to get into her locker so she could grab a granola bar out of her tote when her phone vibrated against her hip.

She took it out of her pants pocket and glanced down, expecting a text from Cece, or one of the other Queen Bees.

Instead, it was from Tess and read: Come to the front desk asap.

Maude paused.

Tess didn’t usually text unless she needed something specific. And she almost never pulled volunteers to the front desk toward the end of their shift. That area was the hospital’s public face for admissions, visitors, information. Volunteers sometimes helped out there, but only after they’d been trained for it, which Maude hadn’t been yet.

Maybe Tess wanted to talk to her about getting trained?

Maude left the locker room behind and started down the hall, the soles of her sneakers squeaking faintly against the polished floor. Nurses passed her going the other direction, some nodded at her, some were too absorbed to notice. The smell of disinfectant and someone’s lunch lingered in the air.

She’d met up with Ollie for lunch, which was becoming their routine. He’d asked her to come to dinner tonight and she’d said yes immediately. She was trying to guess what he’d make.

She adored him, but cooking wasn’t really his thing. Maybe he was going to get takeout. She’d be fine with that. Honestly, it wasn’t about the food so much as it was spending time with him. And the sweetest puppy that ever existed, Milo.

By the time she reached the front desk, she’d come up with a short list of possibilities of why Tess needed her. Could be a scheduling issue, a visitor complaint (she really hoped not), or maybe someone had asked for her by name.

Tess stood behind the desk, phone cradled between her shoulder and ear, one hand braced on the counter. When she saw Maude, her expression changed from concern to something like relief.

She covered the receiver. “Maude. Thank you for coming so quickly.”

“What’s up?” Maude asked, keeping her tone light even as her stomach tightened.

Tess didn’t answer right away. She lowered the phone back into its cradle and leaned forward slightly, bracing her hands on the counter. “Maude, I need you to stay calm,” she said. “Your brother is here.”

Maude shook her head, the words not really making sense. “Here where?” She glanced around. Had he come to see her at the hospital?

“In the ER,” Tess said. “He’s stable and he’s going to be fine. But he asked for you.”